Cleaning a toilet bowl is a tedious and unpleasant task. However, many toilet users are well aware that toilets can be a source of germs. Such germs may cause malodours and can be hazardous to the health of users of the toilet. Moreover, upon flushing a toilet, aerosols carrying the germs are likely to spread well beyond the toilet bowl. Therefore, a device that can automatically dose a disinfecting composition into the toilet will at least partially relief the user from the task of cleaning the toilet and at the same time provide enhanced hygiene to the toilet bowl and the lavatory.
A similar problem arises with other enclosures that are closable by a lid, such as waste bins and wheelie bins, etc.
Thus, it is very desirable to provide a device that can automatically spray a cleaning or disinfecting liquid into an enclosure. However cleaning and disinfection compositions tend to contain ingredients that may be corrosive or irritant when they come in touch with surfaces for which they were not intended. Thus it is very undesirable, or even dangerous to spray such liquids outside the enclosure, especially if it is a toilet. Therefore, a device designed to automatically spray an enclosure should incorporate a means to detect whether the lid of the enclosure is closed, before the actuation is started. Moreover, it should also be avoided that the device sprays when the lid is opened after actuation has already started, for instance by an inquisitive user or small child, whose curiosity is sparked by the device sitting under the toilet lid, especially if part of its actuation is audible.
A potential solution would be a switch that is pressed when the lid is closed. One of the drawbacks of such a switch is that it requires placement between contacting surfaces of the lid and the confronting part of the enclosure, for instance between the toilet lid and the toilet seat. This puts severe restraints on the design of the device and requires accurate placement by the person installing the device on the enclosure.
Another potential way to detect opening of the lid would be a tilt switch. However, tilt switches are by their nature restricted to switching within a very limited range of angles. Thus they would not be able to reliably detect closing and opening of a lid such as a toilet lid, because we found that there is considerable variation between different toilets in the angles of their lids with respect to the horizontal when the lids are in the closed position. These angles turn out not only to vary between different toilets, but may also vary from one time to another for a given toilet, for instance due to slack in the hinges.
Therefore, there remains a need to improve the safety and reliability of devices for automatically spraying enclosures. In particular there exists such a need with regard to devices for spraying into toilet bowls.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to improve the safety and reliability of devices for automatically spraying enclosures, especially toilets.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a device for automatically spraying an enclosure that is able to reliably avoid spraying when the lid of the enclosure is open and reliably actuate and spray when the lid is closed, in particular with regard to a toilet bowl.